Page 26 of Sabotage

“Yeah, it’s the drive, and they didn’t get into it,” Pirate answers.

As he does this, I hear steps behind me and glance back to see Ryann making her way, hair wet and dressed in clean clothes. I guess she’d decided to take a shower. I want to be pissed she showered without me, but I can’t. Doesn’t mean later I won’t make her regret it. Taking showers together is something we’ve done every day, and I get off on us taking them together . . . getting to run my hands over her body and doing other things as well.

“Come here, gorgeous,” I tell her, twisting around and stretching an arm out in her direction.Ryann comes directly to me, and I curl my arm around her waist, drawing her into my lap. “You showered without me,” I whisper in her ear and nip the lobe.

“Yeah,” she utters and relaxes deeper into me.

“You know I’m gonna have to make you pay for that later, right?”

“Why?” she asks, twisting enough to face me.

“‘Cause, baby, I missed out,” I tell her and give her a squeeze. “We’ll discuss this later though.”

I return my attention to Pirate. “You said they hadn’t gotten into it?”

“Nope,” he mutters. “They definitely tried, though.” Pirate shifts his gaze to Maverick. “The program I put in place held.”

“That’s good,” Maverick grumbles and glances around the table. “I don’t buy the bullshit about them giving it back because their brokers got greedy. They must have figured they couldn’t get into it, so it wasn’t worth it. They cut their losses.”

“Gotta agree with you there,” Viking grumbles, nodding and cocks his head my way. “Ryann, tell us what you know about these guys.”

Ryann straightens in my lap, tenses, and starts fidgeting. I’ve seen her do this when she’s nervous, or something’s bothering her plenty of times to read this about her. “They call themselves the Bishop’s Disciples. They’re mean and ruthless. Roy sold me to Bishop and . . .” Her voice trails off, and her breathing becomes heavier.

“You don’t have to talk about that, gorgeous. Just tell us the parts we need to know,” I state, reassuring her, or I hope my voice does.

Nodding, Ryann sucks in an audible breath and does just that. She tells us what we need to know. This isn’t easy on her. I know this, and so do my brothers. We can see it in her face. Hear it in her voice. Talking about this is taking a toll on her, and I don’t like it. Not in the least.

When she finishes, I pull her close, closer than she already is, and press a kiss to the top of her head. She did good, and now we’ve got information that we didn’t. What she gave will help us. Help Pirate with getting the intel we’ll need.

“I know this was hard on you, Ryann,” Ice grumbles.

“What you gave I can definitely use,” Pirate states what I already knew. He looks to Viking. “Give me a couple hours, and I should have something.”

Viking reaches a hand out, touches the screen of his phone, and grimaces. “That’ll work,” he says, getting to his feet. “I’ve got to take Fawn to an appointment. I get back, I’ll find you.”

“Sounds good.” Pirate grunts.

“Ryann, darlin’,” Viking calls, standing. “We appreciate you talkin’ to us and givin’ what you remember. For what they did to you, the parts you left out that I know they did, I give you my word we’re gonna make them pay. Retribution will be yours.”

Damn right, it would be, and I was going to make damn sure those bastards bleed out in the most painful way possible.

CHAPTER TWELVE

RYANN

Sometimes, I wish I could’ve been stronger in the days that I’d been in the captivity of the men who held me. All of them, but I know I can’t go back in time. That doesn’t mean I won’t be strong now. If they were to get their hands on me, I’d fight them until I took my last breath. I wouldn’t let them take me easily.

Not that Sabotage would allow them to get anywhere close to me. He’s said it plenty of times for me to believe him. I don’t need him to tell me, his actions speak loud enough for him. He’d protect me at all costs.

The thing is, I don’t think I could handle it if anything were to happen to him, and it scares me. Nearly as much as the thought of those men getting their hands on me again.

With Sabotage leading the way, I realize he’s not heading toward the stairs, he’s heading for the doors.

“Where are we going?” I ask as we cross the threshold, and the bright sun beams in my face.

“To my house,” he answers like his answer’s a given.

“Oh,” I draw out the two-letter word, letting him hear the surprise in my voice that this was what we were doing.

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